All-City Cross Country: Horizon's Howard Prestwood is the El Paso Times' All-City Coach of the Year

Howard Prestwood of Horizon High School is the El Paso Times' All-City Cross Country Coach of the Year. (VANESSA MONSISVAIS — EL PASO TIMES)

Prior to this season, Horizon cross country coach Howard Prestwood had taken three boys teams to the state meet in his nine seasons as the Scorpions' coach.

A feat he is very proud of.

But he had never taken a girls team, something that's he wanted to accomplish. This year, Prestwood achieved that, leading the Horizon girls cross country team to the Class 4A state meet. For his efforts, Prestwood is this year's El Paso Times' All-City Cross Country Coach of the Year.

"Just a bunch of great kids and they're high effort girls," Prestwood said. "They're really motivated to do well. Not only at state, but through the year in anything they did. It didn't matter whether it was band, or academics. It was a just a great group to be around."

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The Scorpions were only the second girls team from El Paso in the past 20 years to qualify for the state meet.

Prestwood led Horizon to the District 2-4A championship and a third place finish at the Region 1-4A meet in Lubbock to qualify for the Class 4A state meet in Round Rock. The Scorpions went on to finish sixth at the state meet.

"We've always talked to the girls about potentially getting (to state)," Prestwood said. "And we started earlier in the year, saying 'Hey, we can get there.' Keeping track of Canyon and Canyon Randall (the two top teams in the region). We got a little lucky, things worked out and we found ourselves in Austin."

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Prestwood also coached junior Sarah Lopez and freshman Karla Enriquez to second and fifth place finishes, respectively, at district. Lopez went on to finish 10th at regionals and Enriquez to a 11th place finish at regionals.

The future also looks bright for the Scorpions with both Lopez and Enriquez back next season.

"He's very supportive and it's fun to run for him," Lopez said. "He's a great coach."